The present invention generally pertains to a horizontal adjuster for a vehicle seat and especially to an adjuster for removable seats that is hidden beneath the vehicle floor.
Removable rear seating arrangements have long been the standard in multipurpose passenger vehicles and particularly in vans and minivans. The seats are removable to take full advantage of the potential cargo area inherent in these vehicles. Such an option offers improved cargo space but is difficult to implement because of the weight and bulk of the seats.
Other rear seats that fold up or stow within the vehicle have also been introduced. These reconfigurable seats improve storage flexibility by incrementally increasing the cargo area with only a minimum of effort. Many also retain the removability feature to allow the option of maximizing the cargo area.
Still other reconfigurable rear seats have been provided with longitudinal adjuster assemblies as an alternative way to further increase cargo area without removing the seats. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,779,917 and 4,949,931 both teach of rear seats for a van that are adjustable and reconfigurable. Their adjuster systems are hidden below the floor and comprise wheeled trucks rolling in a track. These arrangements, however, lack or are deficient in certain desirable characteristics. In both, the seats do not appear to be removable from their roller tracks. By their nature, such wheeled systems are unstable and promote undesirable vibrations because clearances are needed around their wheels for them to roll freely. Also, such seats are generally not as secure during a crash.
In addition to offering flexible rear seating, it is also desirable for multipurpose vehicle to have a flat cargo area for easy and efficient use thereof. Therefore, it is a requirement that any rear seat mounting or adjuster system not be exposed above the vehicle floor so that when the seats are adjusted forward or removed, the floor will be relatively smooth and level. U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,176 shows a construction with a roller track that has the same disadvantages as the roller adjusters noted above. A dual rail adjuster positioned below the vehicle floor is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,011,209. Since this is a dual rail adjuster, the problems commonly associated with wheeled adjusters are avoided. However, this adjuster does not accomodate the requirements of a removable seat because its locking and seat attachment means are conspicuously located above the floor.